Dale Appleby

As this Issue of Essentials goes to press the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is releasing reports of Case Studies related to various Anglican Dioceses and Institutions. And there will be more to come this year. One of the issues that has emerged is about leadership. Rhys Bezzant helps us consider some aspects of this. It’s an important topic since quality leadership starts with recruitment. Or perhaps recruitment builds on the discipling that takes place in our parishes. And the ministry we provide to families and children. Ben Underwood canvasses some of those issues.

The Senate committee on the government’s same-sex marriage bill also reported this week. According to The Australian, the report agreed “that ministers of religion should be free to decline to marry same-sex couples but civil celebrants should be required to uphold the law and marry gay couples if the reform were legislated.” The government said this week that no action will happen without a plebiscite. And over the sea the General Synod of the Church of England this week rejected the Bishops’ report on same-sex marriage (or the House of Clergy did). The issue is clearly not going away. Ben Underwood has the first part of a complex discussion on some of the issues.

EFAC readers know this is a big year for Reformation fans. Germany will no doubt be over-run with Reformation tours. And so we start the year with a very helpful perspective (again by Rhys) on aspects of the English Reformation. A topic we need to keep before our people. In some dioceses the Reformation has been all but deleted from a skewed history of Anglicanism. In others it may have been forgotten under the pressure to evangelise, modernise, and grow culturally appropriate churches.

And there are lots of other interesting things in this issue of Essentials that may encourage us to hold to and hold forth the faith.

Editor